The invention relates to a method for operating a compression ignition internal combustion engine (10) including at least one combustion chamber (18) with a fuel injector (20) for direct fuel injection into a combustion chamber (18), an electronic control unit (ECU) for controlling the fuel injector, and a glow plug (26) for assisting compression ignition of the fuel and combustion air mixture supplied to the combustion chamber (18) in a start phase (T). The method involves performing a by injecting a start-up pilot fuel quantity, prior to a stratified injection, by means of the fuel injector (20) into the combustion air supplied to the combustion chamber (18) during a cold start of the internal combustion engine (10), said start-up pilot injection (PS) forming a homogeneous, lean air/fuel mixture in substantially the entire combustion chamber (18). The start-up pilot injection is performed during a period between initialization of a cranking phase of the internal combustion engine until at least one predetermined engine operating condition has been fulifilled.
